Auchenstroan Coloured Ryelands

Our chicks who hatched last summer have grown into big, beautiful hens.  It sounds cliche, but it’s hard to imagine they were once inside eggs. When we collected our box of fertile eggs from a local farm last May we were told they were “Black Orpingtons”.  I confess, we’re not too clued up on hen […]

Over the weekend while Adrian has been busy adding a shrubbery to the hen run, my job has been to get the veggie patch ready for planting.  Spring is nearly upon us and our seeds are sitting in their little packets on the kitchen shelf just bursting to get out and transform themselves into plants.  […]

There’s a job we should probably do every year but it usually ends up being every two years or even every three or dare I admit it, every four.  This is because it’s not the most exciting of jobs and nor is it necessarily an urgent job.  It’s one of those jobs that you can […]

Ten days ago I wrote a story about our hen Pepper who had a problem with her crop which wasn’t emptying properly. Since I whisked her into the vets for an operation at the beginning of January (where the vet found nothing untoward), we’ve been scratching our heads wondering what could be causing poor Pepper’s […]

For a wee while now one of our elderly hen ladies, Pepper hasn’t been quite her usual self.  The signs were subtle, in fact, there was only one sign, her tail feathers weren’t as perky as they usually are.  We weren’t unduly worried because she’d gone through a hard moult in November along with the […]

Pretty much every night we hear tawny owls at some point. Recently, they have been hooting all around us as we take the dogs out for their evening stroll. For some time, I have been telling myself I should put up an owl box. Back when the weather was warmer and the ground not white, […]

Up until recently we’ve had week upon week of rain, followed by … yet more rain.   On a farm or smallholding, where there’s rain there’s mud, particularly where livestock likes to congregate.  All through the autumn mud has featured heavily around the hay feeders, entrances to gates and along our woolly friends’ favourite paths.  (Did […]

One of the common themes of this blog is the repair of dry stane dykes (dry stone walls). Most of these repairs are carried out in order to keep the sheep in, but some are just because we like these walls and want them to look good. The latest section needing repair was at the […]

In the sheep world, Ryelands are often referred to as “teddy bear sheep”.  The reason for this, as you might have guessed, is their striking resemblance to roly poly teddy bears.  Most sheep have wool only on their backs, with their faces, tummies and legs remaining almost bare.  The Ryeland however has wool all over […]

Every year, round about the beginning of November we start the “hay ceremony”.  In other words, giving the little darlings hay for the winter.  The sheep let us know when they’re ready for hay, towards the end of October they make a daily pilgrimage down to the orchard and hang around the feeders (usually when […]

Recently you might have noticed a new logo in the corner of our home page.  If you click on it, you will be taken into the Galloway & Southern Ayrshire Unesco Biosphere’s website. To re-wind a bit, one sunny day back in the summer, I was enjoying a chinwag and a cuppa with my friend […]

It has not been the driest of summers which has had it’s good and bad points. However, it has been one of the wettest of Octobers I can remember. Someone turned the rain tap on and has forgotten to turn it off again. The ground has been turned from firm grassland into puddles. This is […]